National Nurses Week Celebrated Through May 12

-Courtesy Photo

By Terry Miller

Nurses are the backbone of health care systems around the world, bearing up countless patients and working long days to help save lives. I know this to be true as I have been both patient and visitor and, yes, my dear old Mum was a nurse at Hammersmith Hospital in England. So, I can tell you a story or two. She, no doubt, could tell a lot more.

Nursing has always been a proud profession and, like the USA, England has exceptional nurse training and many nurses continue their studies to become doctors or other medical specialists.

National Nurses Week 2015, which started yesterday, is a time to recognize the vital role nurses have played in hospitals everywhere around the world.

National Nurses Week begins every year on May 6 and ends May 12 to coincide with the birthday of Florence Nightingale, widely considered the founder of professional nursing. Here are 15 quotes and sayings to share during National Nurses Week.

1. “The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.” — William Osler
2. “Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.” — Gibran Khalil Gibran
3. “As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul and body of our patients, their families and ourselves. They may not remember your name but they will never forget the way you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
4. “To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can do in spite of all we go through, is to be a nurse.” — Rawsi Williams
5. “When you are a nurse, you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.” — Anonymous
6. “Nurses dispense comfort, compassion and caring without even a prescription.” — Val Saintsbury
7. “Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep, and energy … nurses are rarely short on caring.” — Sharon Hudacek
8. “Nurses are the heart of healthcare.” — Donna WilkCardillo
9. “Some people think that doctors and nurses can put scrambled eggs back into the shell.” — Dorothy Canfield Fisher
10. “The most important practical lesson that can be given to nurses is to teach them what to observe.” — Florence Nightingale
11. “Drugs are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is.” — Norman Cousins
12. “Panic plays no part in the training of a nurse.” — Elizabeth Kenny
13. “It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.” — Stephen Ambrose
14. “Save one life, and you’re a hero. Save a hundred lives, and you’re a nurse.” — Unknown
15. “Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing.” – Anonymous

God Bless you, Mum, and all the nurses out there that care for those in need the world over.

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